Diversity in the Classroom

The challenges in American public schools can be vast due to the demographic design of America itself. Many of the challenges can be faced and remedied easily while others are deeply ingrained in our system. Unlike other countries, our system of education is compulsory for all minors allowing no provision for tracking of students into careers. In other words, since education in America is compulsory, we take all comers.

Our public school system is based on the premise that all students can learn at high levels and they need to be college and career ready upon graduation from high school. With the design of our system comes the challenges of fitting the needs of every student. Understanding the dynamics of our system is imperative to define the essential challenges we face with diversity. 

In the classroom, teachers need to develop best practices to address diversity. By being aware of the cultures present and the diverse needs of all the students, the teacher will be better suited to serve their needs. When the teacher can embrace the diversity, the students will develop a better understanding of cultures. Teachers that are culturally responsive, share five characteristics: 1) They develop a culturally diverse base, 2) They design lessons that are relevant, 3) They demonstrate a caring attitude toward cultural diversity, 4) they develop cross-cultural communication techniques, and 5) They utilize culturally respectful instruction. The need for teachers to design lessons that embrace diversity is greater than ever. Teachers that not only embrace diversity in the classroom, but work to incorporate them positively into their curriculum are more successful.

Diversity in the classroom is not only indicated by race. Diversity can involve class, gender, and sexual orientation as well. With each of these forms of difference, students come to the classroom with hosts of experiences, world views, cultural contexts, and sets of experiences.

Additionally, students not only have diverse needs, come from diverse backgrounds, but they have diverse ways of learning. Some learn through visual means, other by auditory, and some through kinesthetic touch. These differences increase the challenges in developing lessons. Teachers need to develop ways to adapt the curricular content to and delivery to meet the needs of the students’ individual and cultural differences.

Educators all have the responsibility to provide a quality education for all students. Part of that is preparing teachers with proper professional development that increases self-awareness; cultivates an understanding of diversity; increases cultural competency; prepares teachers to work with diverse parents as well as students. Multicultural education is more than just an ethnic issue. It is vitally important for everyone to understand it is a universal issue that should be shared by all. 

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Governance

The local public school system in America is vitally important to the community that it serves. The connection to a higher standard of living is anchored in a well-educated workforce. That relationship is so important that many studies have been prompted linking the benefits of education and economic performance. Knowing the benefits, governments from around the world keep formal education funding as a large portion of their budget.

As the government focus has become much greater, politicians and business leaders call into question the global competitiveness of American schools. This sentiment is due, in a large part, to schools not graduating students more skilled in areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). According to the National statistics, STEM jobs increased over 24% from the ten year span of 2004 and 2014 requiring over 6 million jobs, yet schools are not training enough students to fill the need. This comes down to the direction from the State Department of Education and not the local school Districts. Though the State publishes curriculum standards for Districts to comply, the funding for programs is less than adequate. School Districts all around the country struggle to fund exceptional programs that are needed in the STEM areas as many times, they are costly. The challenge is often that with the onset of technology, the need for devices is constantly changing and upgrading at a particularly high cost. This constantly changing environment found in the business world is not necessarily conducive to the educational world.

Though the education system is transforming to include more STEM in the State of California, there are certain consistencies that hold true. The more local the control, the better served the student can be. The locality will have the best idea how to serve the students and that is what it is all about. The profession of education is a service industry. Though we are faced with challenges, serving the students in the classrooms transcends all hurdles lending hope to the idea that people make the difference, not programs. Taking that ideal and employing a service learning environment can build a community of people that look to help other people with learning about their world.

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Schools and Parents: A Collaborative Effort

Research confirms that with the involvement of parents and academic success is improved for all students. Knowing the importance, there are best practices that can be developed for parental engagement that other organizations are employing. Above all, the school must create a welcoming environment and along with that, supportive learning environments. Second only to that, the school should develop a system of home to school communication and a better system of school to home communication. Outreach efforts should also employ the inclusion of parents in school planning, and volunteer opportunities that are meaningful. 

It is undeniably essential to have a parent involvement plan integrated into the school processes. It is the responsibility of the leader to employ such a program. Planning on a school campus should involve not only staff, but parents along with the staff. This is not only professionally the correct thing to do, it is a requirement for many accreditation programs such as the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) which is the accrediting body in California. It is also one of the requirements of the Federal Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP). Though it is the obligation of the school leadership, school planning and development is the responsibility of all stakeholders. The research also reports schools are more successful when all stakeholders are involved. Additionally, culture shifts happen to the positive when people have ownership of their school. Everyone can be contributing members because it is not only the teachers that makes a difference. Before students even get to the classroom, they enter the school and should be met with a team of people that all have the same goal.

That goal should be focused on increasing student achievement at home and school.  With consistent communication, the home to school transition will not diminish the message. Parents as partners with the school, on the same page, pulling on the same side of the rope. Until next time...

A Compelling Case

With relationships at the core, schools should engage students and provide opportunities for students to be successful by increasing their abilities and stimulating their talents and personality (Wang et al., 2014). Bandura (1971) adds to this understanding by stating that learning is dependent on the interaction between the school environment and the student. The failure or success of the student will be determined by the quality of the interaction and the environment with which they are placed (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). The research by Bandura (1971) plainly demonstrates the significance of the social learning context. Bronfenbrenner’s (1977) research adds to the significance of the learning environment and culture. Since the landmark research of Bandura and Bronfenbrenner, studies continue to show the impact a positive environment has on student achievement (Ali & Siddiqui, 2016). When a relationship of trust is present between a student and an adult, the student will rise to the expectations presented (Balkar, 2015). This response, known as the Pygmalion effect, where students will rise to the level of expectation that is placed upon them (Howard et al., 2015) is the practical application of the theories discussed.

A compelling case can be made for the relationship between a teacher and the student as the building blocks of academic achievement. A school culture of high expectation has a strong positive relationship to academic achievement. The school culture of high expectation is made up of the relationships that are built on the school campus. As studies report, relationships have to come before academic rigor. Students will work for their teacher when they know their teacher cares about them and has an authentic belief in them. In contrast, when students feel their teachers do not care, or believe their efforts are futile, their academic achievement is diminished.

Learning occurs more frequently when teachers make the authentic attempt to be actively engaged in the interaction with students and school culture is driven by the relationships that exist on a campus. The bottom line is that when high expectations for student achievement are present, high academic achievement will be the result.

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Teacher/staff Collaboration

The process of education is a detailed method of teaching and learning with a variety of contributors. The walls and classrooms are just the shell to house the process that should be focused on collaboration to be successful (Sanders, 2016). According to Stevens (2014), collaboration by teachers and staff members is the most effective method of improving professional practice which will ultimately lead to improved student outcomes. Collaborative groups can be called by several names but they all share a common focus. They are all outcome based and promote professional dialog around student achievement (Stevens, 2014).

Collaboration is extremely important to a school as it is very clear that schools do not operate solely with one person in charge. It takes a team of people working together under the guidance of the governing board and through sound policy to meet defined goals (Guthrie & Schuermann, 2010). The use of this instrument can facilitate team building and communication throughout the process building professional relationships (Malakyan, 2013). Though it is the responsibility of the principal to listen to all stakeholders, the collaborative process can help by giving others an avenue to improvement (Stevens, 2014).

There are multitudes of ways that collaboration can become deep and meaningful in a school setting and every time collaboration takes place there is likelihood that student achievement will improve (O’Brien, 2015). Stevens (2014) also reports that not only student achievement will improve with collaboration, but teacher effectiveness will improve as a result. With the well documented success of collaborative groups, there are five elements that need attention during the implementation process: 1) Staying data centered; 2) Developing trust; 3) Time; 4) Engagement in the process; and 5) Alignment with the District (Stevens, 2014). When collaborative groups are implanted with fidelity, they force a change to standard practice. 

The bottom line that collaboration works and we are stronger together than alone. Until next time...

Importance of Curriculum Relevance

Today more than ever, it is important for teachers to present a curriculum that is relevant to the students. Not only is relevance vital, context also has to be taken into account during the development of a lesson. This coupled with the understanding of the knowledge, skills and competencies that students need to master in order to move to the next level in their studies make lesson planning more challenging every day. Toss into the mix the idea that students want contextually relevant curriculum, but they want it presented in an interesting and stimulating way. 

Though we can blame social media for this challenge, I believe the challenge has always been there. As society has developed, lesson design has had to evolve. The teacher that is still presenting a lesson with which they used 25 years ago when they started teaching, is not being effective. The content, the delivery, and the method probably is all wrong. That would signify to a supervising administrator or mentor teacher that lessons need to be reworked.

The process for doing this is to begin with a learning goal. Clearly, an outcome must be determined. Once developed, relevant and appropriate learning activities can be added that are based on the skills, knowledge, and competencies that are outlined in the goal. As planning continues, the end result should be a formative assessment that will enable the student and teacher to reflect meaningfully on whether or not the learning goal was achieved. This becomes the ongoing process of developing curriculum that is contextually relevant. 

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Carrot or the Stick

Reciprocal interaction is the basis for Bandura's social learning theory and an important component in building a culture of high expectation on a high school campus. Learning occurs from the active interchange between the school environment and the student, not just in responding to a stimulus provided by the teacher (Bandura, 1971). Bandura discovered that past consequences are important motivators for future behavior. Students that have received positive reinforcement will produce behaviors that are more desirable. The motivating positive reinforcement becomes the reason for the learned behavior. This leads to the idea that schools with a positive culture will provide more quality reinforcement for reaching goals (Bandura, 1971). As students reach goals, they feel better about themselves which increases their desire to achieve even higher goals. On the other hand, students attending a school that has a negative school culture will not receive the reinforcement necessary to fulfill their feedback needs.

Continuing with Bandura’s social learning (1971), there is a connection with regulated consequences and behavior. People generally will not participate in behavior that is not rewarding or that is met with punishment. Rewarded behavior however, has a higher retention level. When rewards and punishments are anticipated, it has strong effects on behavior. Social rewards and behavior incentives have a positive result on learning and social interaction (Bandura, 1971). Applying this concept to schools, students will work hard to earn positive reinforcement from the teacher or their peers and work harder to avoid the negative aspect. This can also help to build a positive culture, as well as a culture of high expectations.

Bottom line is the carrot is much more powerful than the stick.

Until next time...